The opening night film for South by Southwest 2016 has been chosen, and it will instantly make you rethink your decision not to attend the Austin-based film festival. It was announced today that writer/director Richard Linklater’s Boyhood follow-up Everybody Wants Some will make its world premiere as the opening night film of SXSW 2016.
Previously titled That’s What I’m Talking About and described by Linklater himself as a “spiritual sequel” to his seminal classic Dazed and Confused, the comedy takes place in the world of 1980s college life and “follows a group of college baseball players as they navigate their way through the freedoms and responsibilities of unsupervised adulthood.” The logline concludes, “Get ready for the best weekend ever.”
Janet Pierson, head of SXSW Film, describes the comedy as “really funny, instantly quotable, and filled with great new talent.” Indeed, as with Dazed and Confused, Linklater cast Everybody Wants Some with plenty of fresh faces, including Will Brittain, Zoey Deutch, Ryan Anthony Guzman, Tyler Hoechlin, Blake Jenner, Glen Powell, and Wyatt Russell. Another reason to be excited about the film—other than the fact that it’s a new Richard Linklater movie, that is—is that Annapurna Pictures’ Megan Ellison is onboard as producer.
The Boyhood filmmaker is already busy lining up his next project, which looks to be Where'd You Go Bernadette? which now has Cate Blanchett in talks to star. He was initially developing The Rosie Project with Jennifer Lawrence at Sony, but once talks with Lawrence and the studio broke down, Linklater departed that project.
Since Linklater shot Everybody Wants Some early this year, there was hope that it would be ready in time for the fall awards season. That didn’t happen, though, as Paramount Pictures will instead be releasing the comedy on April 15, 2016. If you’re attending SXSW, though, you have a shot at seeing the film early (lucky ducks). The festival kicks off with this opening night screening on March 11, 2016.